David Tennant's super fast delievery was clearly inspired by the way Davison could do the same thing. It's a shame we didn't see any of that in Time Crash.
I don't know, personally I thought Attack had entertaining moments and nice call backs to Tomb. But, it also tried to cram in too much and the ending was a bit weak I thought. Also, we just had a Cyberman story so not sure if they'd want to go right into another. Colin's Dalek story is also rather nice. But, it's subjective! I recently rewatched the Trial season and was very impressed with a couple of those stories. But, I'm not sure, kind of doubt they'd show one story of the Trial arc. Mr Awe
Anyway, what bugged me about "Earthshock" was how marginalized Nyssa was, just choosing to stay behind in the TARDIS for no good reason. The occasional scenes where they cut back to her and the scientist for a couple of lines before going back to the rest of the cast seemed totally pointless except as a way to remind us that Nyssa existed. But then, they said in the preceding special that the reason for killing off Adric was their recognition that they had too many companions to serve them all well. I guess Nyssa's treatment here proves that point. Still, why did the Cybermen insist that Adric stay behind on the freighter anyway? That was pretty arbitrary. And then they said in the special what a big surprise it was that the Cybermen were involved in the story, so I was expecting more mystery before their reveal, like maybe showing us shadowy figures ordering the robots around before finally unveiling the real threat. Instead they just casually cut to the Cybermen and there was no big drama about the reveal at all.
The reveal was the first ep. cliffhanger and it's really bit of a jarring cut when you see it in it's original format.
I thought it was interesting that there were a lot of female officers in Earthshock. Was there more of that at this stage in Doctor Who or is this episode a bit of an anomaly?
Earthshock was the second episode of Doctor Who that I saw and it really sold me on the show. The first episode I saw was Four to Doomsday which I also really enjoyed, as strange as it was to a 10 year old's eyes. This was back in 2000 and no one here had ever heard of Doctor Who except for my crazy aunt who sat me down and said I had to watch this.
I don't think it was unprecedented in DW at the time -- we are talking 1982 here, after all -- but it was still the sort of thing that would've seemed futuristic and progressive.
IIRC Nyssa was originally going to be written out towards the end of season 19 (ie, around Earthshock time) as well, as she was the companion script editor/Earthshock writer Eric Saward was least interested in, but Peter Davison thought she was the one who worked best with his Doctor (which I'd say is rather proved by Snakedance, where Nyssa is effectively sole companion, what with Tegan being possessed by the Mara) , so she was kept for another season (and Davison even argued for bringing her back to replace Tegan the year after that).
Nyssa was my favorite companion after Sarah-Jane. Nice to know that Peter went to bat for the character, keeping Sarah Sutton on the show. Tegan was cute, but I always found her to be a bit annoying.
Dr. Who was at its most mature in the 1980s. Sci-fi was "safe" up until the late 1970s. You had the laser surgury sequence in Logan's run--amputations by heroes in Star Wars-- and then came ALIEN, and The Thing. So when Star Trek II came along, post John Carpenter (Halloween) there was a sense of danger. Earthshock was part of this era. I think Tom Baker faced an alien that fell on a vial of diseased material and the back of its head turned to jelly--but Dr. Who was around its most violent in the 5th sixth Doctor era. Davros got shot in the palm--and perhaps most chillingly, Lytton gets his hands crushed by Cybermen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH7aoZwFnyw That shocked me even as an adult.
I think I have to agree with you on that, but by contrast, I think it was it's most fun when Tom Baker was the Doctor. I liked Peter a lot, he was probably my favorite Doctor after Tom and David Tennant, but Baker was the quintessential Doctor, IMO. I realize this opinion was formed because he was the first actor I ever saw in the role, but despite its cheesiness and sometimes drawn-out storylines, for me, the show was the most fun in the 70s.
"The Android Invasion" which depicted the rhino-like Kraal (beating the Judoon by roughly 30 years) wearing Samurai inspired armor. But there's also "The Seeds of Doom" (not to be confused with Patrick Troughton's "Seeds of Death") which contained some chilling sequences. To a certain degree there was the painful mutation of two different humans infused with Krynoid DNA. But far more disturbing was the compost processor of the main villain, Harrison Chase. It was basically a big a$$ wood chipper and Chase "fed" one person through it; tried to feed Sarah Jane until the Doctor managed to free her; and the Doctor and Chase struggled until the crazed tycoon got caught in it himself! True, we didn't actually see either victim shredded by the machine, nor did they have any blood splash against a wall, but it's quite obvious what happened. Sincerely, Bill
I guess they solved the problem of what Doctor will be shown in December, the 12th month: the 12th Doctors episode.
Well, that was annoying. I've never seen "Earthshock", and naturally the docu that aired in front of it specifically told me the way that you know who dies. WTF.
Yeah, I was surprised that they were so upfront about that. Might have been better to leave the doc until after the episode for once.
They could have at least talked about it without saying it was THIS episode and the exact manor it happens in!